Customer Experience 2012 Conference.

I have just returned from attending and speaking at New Zealand’s second Customer Experience Management conference and as a result I’m more convinced than ever that future business growth and profitability will be driven by the consistency and quality of an organisations customer experience.

Chaired by Paul Linnell MD of CTMA NZ and a fellow co-founder of Customer Experience Management NZ the conference opened with a key note address from Dick Brunton Executive Chairman of research company Colmar Brunton.

Dick’s theme was based around encouraging business to start looking at their customers from their hearts not their heads.

Later in the morning a leader’s panel including Tim Alpe from the Jucy Group, Ari Sargent CEO The Powershop and Liz Taylor CCO Tax Management NZ shared with the conference how they are creating a more customer centric culture within their organisations and the benefits they are seeing for both their customers and their people as a result of their efforts.

A highlight of the afternoon was the interactive session conducted by Matt Currie and his team from Divergent Ltd. During this session we all got the opportunity to learn the process of customer experience mapping. This session was based around “our last trip to a supermarket” and resulted in everyone gained a greater understanding of the importance of this step in developing a more customer centric culture.

Day two kicked off with a highly informative presentation from Optimal Usability’s CEO Trent Mankelow talking about the importance of aligning the digital experience with the brick n mortar channel.

This was followed by an inspiring presentation from Mighty Apes Wed designer Dylan Bland. Dylan gave us an amazing insight into NZs award winning online shopping site and how they have developed a totally focused customer centric culture that is certainly all about “loving the customer” and based on results that love is very much being returned.

Following Mighty Ape was our second case study presented by Sue Matson and Simon Kearney from Flight Centre NZ. This presentation highlighted the incredible lengths this organisation goes to ensure the team experience matches the experience the organisation has committed to delivering to their customers.

And the most entertaining presentation of the conference goes to the amazing ice cream maker Greg Hall from Kohu Rd. Greg highlighted the importance of the brand story as a vital part of the customer experience.

The last speaker of the conference was Retail Sales Manager for Z Energy Richard Barker. Richard shared the Z story so far and ensured everyone that there much more to come especially around the Z customer experie

2 days of quality information and insight presented by a top line -up of speakers, 2 days of invaluable networking with leaders from a wide cross section of businesses and industries, 2 days of inspiration and motivation around the focus that organisations’ are now placing on the development of a quality customer experience as a sustainable competitive advantage

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking conference director Sarah Day from Conferenz , Chair Paul Linnell, a passionate line up speakers and sponsors and the Pullman Hotel conference team for a first class job. I’m looking forward to next year’s event already